Pentecostal Clergy and Politics in Zambia: A Case of Pastor Nevers Mumba, President of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy

Abstract

There is no contesting the fact that Pentecostal clergy involvement in partisan politics is a relatively new phenomenon in Africa. In Zambia, Pastor Nevers Mumba has not been given some serious attention by academic observers. In this article I cite his postulation for leaving televangelism to join politics, which has translated into his becoming the fourth president of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. I expose the inherent contradiction in practice between Mumba’s “political ethics†and “politics†as it is played out in real Zambian life. As a “political pastor†who vilifies corruption, Mumba would be expected to galvanise tremendous support from citizens, the majority of whom claim to be Christian. This, not having been the case, I construct an argument that: Mumba seems to have compromised his Christian faith for the rewards of politics of the belly and for a future that has led him into the morass of political duplicity.